My parents are kinda … hippie-ish, I guess you would say. I have mentioned it before – the shag carpet straight out of The Brady Bunch (green carpeting at that!), the vinyl (records) of bearded men, my mother’s fascination with monks even though she is a devoted Lutheran, my father’s campfire retreats he would hold during most of the summer, and the pig roasts we would have at the family reunions. Wait – that’s more gross than Hippie-ish, right?

My 3 brothers tried their hardest to introduce me to other music – and some of it stuck – but I have to admit that I’m a bit back dated. Blame my parents.

I don’t remember ever getting the “talk” from my mother, either. I remember one day I woke up – and I had a little talk with my mother, and she led me to the bathroom and showed me my supplies under the sink. That was it. Until later that evening. My mother informed me around 5:00pm that Wednesday evening that our family would be going out to celebrate. When I asked her what the blessed event was that needed such celebratory hoopala, she smiled a sneaky little smile and told me to wear a pretty dress. My 3 brothers, my parents and I scrambled into the car and drove into town, sat down at the local diner and ordered whatever we wanted from the 2 page glossy menu. Before the waiter served us, my mother made the announcement. “CeCe became a woman today.” My brothers looked at me. Then they looked at me again. My eldest brother snorted a little, and the 2 others repeated the sound and added, “She don’t look no different to me!” to the mix. I was humiliated. Not only was I wearing what could only be described as a diaper, but I was also humiliated in front of my entire family. I think the other people at the diner came over later to offer their congratulations, too. I never forgot it. I might have mentioned it before in this blog – and if I did – well – it’s part of my healing to talk about these things…at least you are just reading it – you didn’t actually have to experience it like I did. *sad face*

So when my little cousin informed me that her best friend had “started” – I took it as a personal mission to make sure we celebrated the event appropriately. We went to pick her up and delivered her a care package of carefree, chocolate, midol and a sympathy card. We also burned a disc with all sorts of songs we felt would be appropriate for her little journey into womanhood; Genie in a bottle, Breaking Dishes, More Than a Woman, I’m Every Woman, Emotions, Girl…You’ll be a Woman Soon, and a few others. I told the poor little camper that lunch was on me – and that she could choose the place. We drove about 5 minutes while I threw out suggestions. She settled finally on In and Out – a local burger joint. I thought that maybe she wanted a milkshake or something, but she chose a diet coke (??). She calmly informed me that the blessed event had ended as soon as it had started and that she was fine and really didn’t see the big deal. I laughed – but didn’t dare destroy her dream. She also believes that texting boys in the middle of the night is innocent and the only bad thing about low rider jeans is that you can’t bend over with out showing the crack of your ass. I appreciate the innocence of 7th graders. When I played “Edge of 17″ for her and announced that Stevie Nicks was someone she needed to recognize as pure talent – she grinned and told me her parents listened to her all the time. Hmph. As I ate my salad I suddenly realized that I have somehow squeezed past this “girl” stage into this woman stage – with out so much as a dinner or announcement. It didn’t happen that night my parents took me out to dinner – but happened somewhere between graduation and eating a salad with 2 13 year olds who liked thousand island dressing on their french fries.

I grabbed a near by marker and threw a hair brush to my 2 pals and taught them how to do a Stevie Nicks song with style. “Just like the white winged dove….” we sang loudly and out of tune… and giggled while singing “ooooh baby oooh”.

I can’t wait for the next “dinner”.

Until then – I’ll be working tonight until Midnight – and will log on for a bit tomorrow morning before my orthodontist appointment. Tomorrow evening I’ll be working until Midnight or later if need be. I’ll update again to let you in on my schedule this weekend.

Talk to you soon… oh – and … If you so desire – listen to a little bit of “edge of 17″. It’s a fabulous song. No hair brush required. *wink*